1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to wireless communications systems, and in particular to wireless communications among devices in a local area.
2. Description of Related Art
When a person misplaces an object or device, he or she frequently has to spend a significant amount of time looking for the object or device. For example, a person might have to walk around the house looking for misplaced car keys, walk around the office looking for a lost cell phone, or wander around the airport looking for lost luggage. Not only can such a search be time consuming, trying to locate an item or remember where the item was left can also be quite frustrating and tiresome. As the number of portable devices that a person owns and must keep track of increases, the inconvenience of having to search for misplaced items is only likely to increase.
There are currently systems that can be used to assist in locating misplaced devices. For example, some cordless telephones have a xe2x80x9cpagexe2x80x9d feature that causes the cordless telephone to ring when it is paged by the cordless telephone base station. In addition, systems exist in which an approximate location of a device can be determined from signals received from that device at one or more of a network of antennas. Such systems, however, can be limited by the range of transmission, typically only exist for a very small number of types of devices, and frequently require special hardware for use in the search process.
There is a need, therefore, for a system and method for conveniently and efficiently locating objects and devices. Preferably, such a locating procedure could be performed without requiring significant amounts of hardware that is specifically designed for the search procedure.
The present invention comprises a method and system for locating objects using wireless communications. In particular, a requesting device utilizes other devices in the vicinity to forward a location request from one device to another until a specified device is located, if possible. The system includes a request origination device for transmitting a location request for the specified device. The location request is transmitted via a local wireless link. The system further includes a request forwarding device that receives the location request and forwards the location request via the local wireless link. If the request forwarding device receives a response to the forwarded location request from the specified device, then it sends a message to the request origination device that includes information relating to a location of the specified device.
In accordance with another embodiment of the invention, a search request for a specified device is transmitted via a local wireless interface by a first device. The search request is received at a second device and is forwarded via the local wireless interface. A response to the forwarded search request is received from the specified device, and information relating to a location of the specified device, which information is based on the received response, is sent to the first device.
In accordance with another embodiment, a search request for a specified device is transmitted via a local wireless interface by a first device. The search request is received at a second device and is forwarded via the local wireless interface to a new separate device. It is then determined if the separate device comprises the specified device. If so, the first device is notified that the specified device has been located. If, however, the separate device does not comprise the specified device and if the search request has already been forwarded at least a predetermined number of times, the first device is notified that the search failed. Otherwise, the steps of forwarding the search request and determining if the separate device comprises the specified device are repeated until either the specified device is located or it is determined that the search request has already been forwarded at least said predetermined number of times.